At one point, the guitarist stated: "I'd like to take a six month break and go to a school of music. I want to learn, be a model student and study and think. I'm tired of trying to write stuff down and finding I can't. I want a big band. I don't mean three harps and fourteen violins, I mean a big band, full of competent musicians that I can conduct and write for."
Eddie Kramer, who produced this album, put together the talents of: Sting, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Stanley Clarke, Corey Glover, Brian May, Tony Williams, Steve Vai, Toots Thielemans and others. For backup, he threw in the London Metropolitan Orchestra.
Friends of Hendrix report that he had an affinity for classical music: "I went to visit Jimi at his suite at the Drake Hotel and noticed the pile of classical albums on the record player, among them Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. This was a side of him that I had never been exposed to previously. We talked about classical music and, to my surprise, he told me that a lot of his inspiration came from listening to it."
The best way to describe In From the Storm is to say that all of the intricacies of Hendrix's music are still there, but some of the edge is missing. This is a bit of a surprise in some parts of the songs, but the sound is just as full as the orchestra provides some of the needed intensity.
No one can be sure what Jimi Hendrix would be doing if he was alive today, he might have produced an album similar to this one, or he might be traveling around and doing the same old act, having burned himself out. But if one has to choose, this album is probably closer to what he would have wanted and there are parts of it where you would swear that he is actually performing.
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